Commissioning Music

The commission for Creating the World was the biggest I had gotten up to that point (1995), and it marked the start of a turning point for me as a composer, when I really began to believe that it might be possible to cut down on subsidizing my career as a composer with other work, that I could begin to think about living as solely a composer and performer, and not have to take on less interesting work to make the more interesting work possible.

That’s still not 100% true, but the proportions are growing, and the more MTC sets the standard for professional- level commissions, the more possible it is for there to be professional (full-time) composers. The crazy balancing acts we all have to do to make a living can be seen as beneficial strengthening of the will, of making some Darwinian selection of only the most talented and driven composers, but the downside is that the time that talented people fritter away doing unimportant work to subsidize their “real” work is a hideous waste of years of time and effort that could be so much better spent honing one’s art, MAKING art.

MTC sets a standard for all the other new music funding organizations in terms of the amounts awarded, the stylistic range of music supported, and their overall commitment to excellence.
-Eve Beglarian

It is well known among composers in America that the organization that cares the most about them is Meet The Composer. That is manifest, most of all,
through MTC’s wonderful commissioning program. Being a beneficiary myself, I would like to add my voice to all the others who say, thank you MTC and please keep up the good work.
-Steve Reich

Meet The Composer has been invaluable to me. I have been close to the organization from its very beginning and I have witnessed its growth and the initiatives it has taken through the years on behalf of the composers of our nation. It is a legacy I have benefited from, and it is my hope that it will continue with its mission enriching the role of the composer in our society.
-Tania León

Meet The Composer has proven itself again and again to be the most boundary-stretching, visionary and well-funded composer’s service organization in history. It is doubtful that there has been an organization anywhere in the world that can match MTC’s epic scope. Over the years, MTC has developed and administrated many fine commissioning programs among which the MTC/Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program is foremost.

As a composer/guitarist, one of my primary efforts has been the integration and balancing of composition with improvisation. The two commissions I received from this program enabled me to make major strides in this effort and also helped me to strengthen my outward identity and internal self-image as a composer. To plant the seeds of a new work, to allow the fledgling work to grow and to reveal itself over an extended period of time, and then finally to see the work mature into a living, breathing work of art in performance is a beautiful and pure creative process which MTC has made possible in hundreds, maybe even thousands of cases. The act of providing assistance so that these many works of art can be brought forth is noble indeed and culturally enriching to all. Many of the commissioned works would not exist without the invaluable support provided by MTC and I am deeply grateful for the generous support I have received.
-James Emery

My favorite work is the composition of solo electroacoustic vocal pieces, but it is rare that I am offered the possibility of writing them. In 1990 and in 1993 the Meet The Composer/ Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Program gave me this opportunity — for the composition of Vena Cava and Schrei 27. Given the chance to concentrate, to the exclusion of everything else, I had “visitations” from the subjects of the works. No other word will suffice. The financial freedom to sonically realize one’s dreams or nightmares, waking or asleep, is a sublime gift from an organization which says, “We believe in your vision. Proceed.”
-Diamanda Galas

The support provided by the Commissioning Program made possible the creation of many works that might not have been composed otherwise. In the late 20th century, the history of music composition cannot be written without mentioning the impact this program had for composers and performing groups alike. In many ways Meet The Composer was instrumental in setting the standards we have now for the process of commissioning of new works.
-Roberto Sierra

My Meet The Composer commissions helped to provide a respectable compensation and recognition for new projects to which I was passionately committed, and which the conventional institutions weren’t about to commission, much less take an interest in producing. The vision of John Duffy enabled composers of all genres, connected to both grassroots and establishment institutions, to experience a rare level playing field in American cultural life and society, where simply the ideas and talents of the artist would be the singular merit.
-Fred Ho

The Meet The Composer/Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program came into being at exactly the right moment for Rova Saxophone Quartet, and I think I can safely say that it determined our performance trajectory for the decade of the nineties. In 1986, we’d been together for eight years, and the four of us had composed all the music for the quartet. We knew we needed fresh input from composers and peers. Our plan was to create a concert series here in San Francisco in which we would collaborate on some concerts and commission works for the quartet to be performed on other concerts. But we could never, ever have gotten pieces from luminaries like Jack DeJohnette or John Carter without the ability to pay for the music. And in 1988, it was almost impossible to find funding for commissioning music for a saxophone quartet that wanted to include elements of improvisation. Then suddenly appeared the Meet The Composer/Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program, and we were off to the races. Rova received commissions for at least 15 composers in that period, and presented their music not only here but all over the US, in Europe, and even in the USSR in 1989. Many festivals would never have heard Rova without the enticement of work from these composers. Even now in the year 2001, we are still performing the music of Fred Frith. We also released three CDs called The Works, Volumes 1, 2, and 3, on Black Saints Records, with three compositions per CD, all commissioned through this program.
-Larry Ochs, Rova Saxophone Quartet

Since 1987 the California EAR Unit has been Ensemble-in-Residence at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, performing in that time over 400 critically acclaimed premieres by both local and internationally known composers. With support gratefully received from the Meet The Composer/Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program, we could help make contributions to the contemporary chamber music literature which show the scope, breadth, diversity, and energy that makes American music so unique today.
-Dorothy Stone, EAR Unit